A “perfect storm” of poor parents and over-ambitious heads is fuelling a
breakdown of discipline in the classroom, teachers’ leaders warned today.

Rising numbers of lessons are being interrupted by low-level disruption such as shouting, swearing, constant chatter, throwing pens and refusing to turn off mobile phones, it is claimed.

More than two-thirds of teachers complain of “widespread” indiscipline on a daily basis, claiming problems are leading to hours of lost lesson time.

Research carried out by one of the country’s biggest classroom unions claimed that a lack of support from parents and senior managers was to blame.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said that too many children were “turning up late, without the correct equipment, having not done their homework and simply not in the mindset to learn” because mothers and fathers fail to set a good example.

Some 36 per cent of teachers claimed they had actually experienced direct abuse from a parent in the last 12 months.

But the study – released to coincide with the start of the union’s annual conference in Bournemouth this weekend – found that large numbers of frontline teachers were also failing to win backing from heads.

It was claimed that heads were actually enlisting pupils to spy on their teachers in the classroom – training them to carry out mock “Ofsted-style inspections” – in an attempt to weed out poor-performing staff.

Miss Keates insisted this had swung the balance of power in the classroom away from teachers towards pupils themselves, further undermining their authority and creating a generation of cocky children.

“The focus has shifted from monitoring the behaviour of pupils to monitoring the behaviour of teachers,” she said.

“We have seen a huge growth in the number of schools asking pupils to report on their teachers.

“Pupils have been trained to carry out Ofsted-style inspections and have also been issued with questionnaires and asked to rate teachers on issues like how they mark their work and the standard of homework tasks.

“There’s also a growth in ‘take-outs’, where senior managers literally pull a pupil out of class mid-lesson and ask them how a teacher is getting on.

“This is having a dramatic impact. Pupils know they can make or break a teacher and it is resulting in the undermining of teachers’ authority.”

The NASUWT surveyed more than 13,000 teachers as part of a major poll.

Some 85 per cent claimed they had been verbally abused by a pupil in the last year, while more than a third – 36 per cent – have been on the receiving end of slurs from parents.

In all, 69 per cent of teachers believe there is a “widespread problem” of poor behaviour in schools.

They cited a “lack of parental support, pupils not coming to school ready to learn and the low aspirations of families and students” as the biggest causes of indiscipline.

Low-level disruption was seen as the main form of bad behaviour, with teachers complaining of chatter in class, failure to complete work and the inability of pupils to follow basic rules.

More than half of teachers – 51 per cent – said they did “not feel supported by senior management to deal with pupil indiscipline”.

STAFF 'REFUSING TO TEACH' THUGGISH PUPILS

Unions are resorting to industrial action to keep “unteachable” children out of the classroom, it emerged last night.

Britain’s two biggest classroom unions threatened to launch formal “refusal to teach” action on eight occasions in the last year because of concerns over pupil indiscipline.

In most cases, the protest was launched after schools failed to expel violent or unruly pupils.

The National Union of Teachers launched the action at Worle Community School, North Somerset, after a 15-year-old with a history of violent and aggressive behaviour was allowed back into lessons despite earlier being expelled.

The NUT balloted members at the Octagon School, North London, to refuse to teach a pupil linked to various violent attacks and malicious allegations against staff. The pupil was eventually sent to another school.

The NASUWT refused to teach an “intimidating” 14-year-old boy and a “highly manipulative” 15-year-old girl at a Nottinghamshire school. Both were eventually removed from the school.

NASUWT leaders said that regional officials had also been called into local schools “on a weekly basis” to negotiate with heads over problems of widespread low-level disruption among a hardcore of pupils.